I’ve been a web developer since before “mobile first”, and since before mobile as a serious web target. Granted when it did become a serious target, we had different terms as well: adaptive and responsive design come to mind. “Mobile first” as a concept was not then—and never has been, for anyone who takes those other concepts seriously—“mobile at the expense of all else”.
What I mean is that quite a lot of these examples and others people frequently cite when complaining about “mobile first” are not inherent to “mobile first” per se. To my mind, they’re an incomplete application of the principle. And the principle became prominent when the inverse problem was more universal: designs (or simply their implementation) targeted desktop first, and added mobile affordances as an afterthought.
“Mobile first” shouldn’t mean that other web experiences aren’t just as important a consideration. Philosophically, it comes from the perspective that a broadly usable and accessible web experience accounts for the most stringent constraints and works out from there.
I distinctly recall solving problems like those discussed in the article well over a decade ago. It was a lot of work. It requires a lot of care and attention to detail. That doesn’t excuse skipping any of it! And it really should be more achievable as the standards have evolved. But it does require dedication to addressing a large matrix of users’ needs and usage conditions.
What I mean is that quite a lot of these examples and others people frequently cite when complaining about “mobile first” are not inherent to “mobile first” per se. To my mind, they’re an incomplete application of the principle. And the principle became prominent when the inverse problem was more universal: designs (or simply their implementation) targeted desktop first, and added mobile affordances as an afterthought.
“Mobile first” shouldn’t mean that other web experiences aren’t just as important a consideration. Philosophically, it comes from the perspective that a broadly usable and accessible web experience accounts for the most stringent constraints and works out from there.
I distinctly recall solving problems like those discussed in the article well over a decade ago. It was a lot of work. It requires a lot of care and attention to detail. That doesn’t excuse skipping any of it! And it really should be more achievable as the standards have evolved. But it does require dedication to addressing a large matrix of users’ needs and usage conditions.